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Making Waves

Right To Bare Arms

Former Prime Minister Kim Campbell has taken some serious hits on Twitter for saying she is "Struck by how many women on television news wear sleeveless dresses- often when sitting with suited men. Campbell said she has always felt it was demeaning to the women.

She added, "Bare arms undermine credibility and gravitas!"

I think the only thing demeaning to women is that tweet.

The tweet was accompanied by a link to a study by people at the University of Maryland

In the study, participants were given pictures of a person clothed, naked, and then in a sensual pose.

It found that both women and men were judged as more intelligent and powerful when clothed, and less intelligent the more skin they showed. People reportedly empathized with the subjects the more sensual looking they got.

Kim Campbell used this to take aim at female news anchors. As if their messages are difficult to listen to and take seriously with the absence of sleeves.

Scores of twitter users shot back about the right to bare arms.

One joked, "I never realized these suited men force these women to wear sleeveless clothes."

One man joked "Maybe newscasters should cover their faces in case we judge them for how pretty they are."

A woman who is a lawyer tweeted: "I wear sleeveless shirts to the office year-round, because MY SHIRT SLEEVES DID NOT GO TO LAW SCHOOL."

And one man pointed out Facebook founder "Mark Zuckerberg wears a t-shirt and he's taken more seriously than any suited and booted newsreader or politician, whether male or female."

Another said Michelle Obama could convey a message to a crowd without the aid of sleeves.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say I don't think it's sleevelessness that demeans and undermines credibility Kim, and like another twitter user said, "I thought you should know... It's actually no longer the 1800s. "